my kids

G4T in all their glory!

Good to see them smiling - can't be working them hard enough!

dom

The joy of shipping

The shipping arrived yesterday! Happy day. The man from Crown apologised for being 10 minutes late - not bad whenyou consider how far the stuff has come.

They unpacked all the breakablesa dn opened up the other boxes - they would have unpacked everything but it didn't seem worth it. One bowl - ou favourite - got broken but it broke into large pieces so will look ok when it's glued. Have filled out a form and they will do insurance stuff. We're not bothered really - we'll get another one in Istanbul anyway.

It's good to have all our own stuff in the place now - and it will keep Aytun busy for weeks sorting it all out. We need to get some shelves etc, and there is a place where you can get nice stuff made. We will take a trip there to see and get some quotes.

Dom

happy days

coming down, or up, from last nights tequila, stood in my kitchen cooking sausages, listening to oasis, whilst aytun makes coffee.

happy days indeed.

A few random pics

Not all bus stops look like this, but a fair few do

Aytun in a shopping street

On a bridge with the city moat in the background

One for the train bods out there - the train station.
Nice from a distance, but a seething mass of humanity close up.

Humble Administrators Garden

Another of suzhou's famous gardens. We went on Saturday and it was beautiful inside. Quite busy for a little while, but then it emptied as the tour groups moved on. Very tranquil place in almost the heart of the city.

Outside we bought a map off a man for 5 rmb. we tried to pay with one note that had 5 on it but he didn't want it so we gave him a different one, whereupon he grabbed the other as well. We grabbed it back and told him he was a bad man, or words to that effect. Later that night we asked some friends what this strange '5' note was. We thought it may have been an old 5 rmb note - turns out it was a 0.5 rmb note. We had practically wrestled a man in the note in the street for 1/3rd of 1 pence! A proud day for any Thomas I believe.

Went to a Japanese restaurant that's close by on Saturday night. 100 rmb for all the sushi you can eat, and drinks as well. Remember that 10 quid is 150 rmb, so it's a good deal.

Three signs

No Louding - this in a country that's noisier than Turkey!

CARE HEAD - sign on an escalator

In front of a cake shop called Ganso. Mark 'Ganso' Sears will appreciate it

Hey teacher...

Aytun by a big junction

Thursday evening. One day of the week left. It's been a good week - tiring, not least because of the size of the new school and the amount of to-ing and fro-ing. The kids are good and things are coming together at school in terms of resources being unpacked etc.

Talking of schools BISI paid me - only a week late and 40 dollars short for no reason, but pays pay. They paid Aytun's last salary as well, which whilst entitled to, was a bonus. Only took 2 emails and 3 abortive phone calls.....Bless 'em.

England. No words to describe the ineptitude of last night. Or at least none that I would want my parents to read. Got up at 3:45 am to watch second half and wished that I'd just spent the 45 minutes clubbing myself on the head with a stone. Awful from top to bottome and side to side. Who to blame? I don't know, but I would start with every player and every member of the coaching staff.

Went for a walk just now and saw lots of old people in the park practicingtheir martial arts and stuff. Oh, to be in China. It's things like that that make it all seem real and make us feel alive.

Game on.

Dom

Plant life

The kids started at work today - lots of smiling faces eager to please, and that was just the teachers! I have 20 in my class and they seem a little quiet, but I am sure that I can start to stir them up a bit.

We had an eventful Sunday. We went plant buying. Doesn't sound too exciting i know, but when you don't speak Chinese and the seller doesn't speak English things can get interesting. We chose lots of plants - big and small - and then set about trying to get them delivered. This we managed despite only knowing the words for 'hello', '20' and 'delivery'! The rest was done by sign language and writing down numbers.

The woman wanted a deposit of 50 rmb, against a total of 350, and we thought they were being delivered at 9 am Monday morning. They actually came at 9 pm Sunday night, a little more than 2 houyrs after choosing them.

Which was nice.

Aytun has a friend from Turkey visiting tomorrow - hers sister's friend who works in textiles - so that's an unexpected bonus.

I'm going for a run. Or a sweat anyway.

Dom

Our House

Shelves

TV DVD corner

Our bed

Study room

Main bathroom

Little bar

Entrance

Exercise guards

On the way out to footy I heard some shouting and the sound of marching feet - it was the housing complex gaurds being put through their paces as though they were in the army! Aytun siad that she saw them doing some drills and marching. We have got pix and will post them soon...

Had to go to the police office today to sign a form so that we can get our permits etc. I think they were just matching faces to forms. Very like Turkey in many ways.

School - still lots of work to be done on the building, but it's nearly there. Have spent the last 3 days humping boxes and furniture around. Got pencils etc today, so we're getting there!

Have got some more pix of various stuff and will post them soon.

Comments - I believe that there is an option for people who view the site to post comments. Don't, I can't read them! I can't access my own site to looat at it - but I can add content etc.

Dom